Brittany Davis - Image Issues (2024) Hi Res

Brittany Davis, is a Kansas City native who was born blind. Brittany’s mother served time in prison, so Davis was raised by their grandmother. At the age of 3, Davis was playing piano trying to recreate birdsongs they heard outside their living room window. A few years later, Davis would begin to appreciate gospel and jazz music before being captivated by hip-hop and R&B in their teenage years. Davis’ musical exploration continued when the family moved to Seattle. A place where they would discover and appreciate Afro-punk, rock, and musicians within the black rock & roll scene.

Prior to their solo career, Brittany Davis was keyboardist in the band Painted Shield along with co-founder of the following excellent bands: Green River, Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog, Brad, and Pearl Jam, Stone Gossard, folk singer-songwriter Mason Jennings, and drummer Matt Chamberlain. The group has released two albums so far, the self-titled Painted Shield (2021) and Painted Shield 2 (2022).

In 2022, Davis released their solo debut EP, I Choose to Live EP. And on March 1st for your listening pleasure, comes their debut album titled, Image Issues via Loosegroove Records, a record label based in Seattle and formed by grunge musicians Stone Gossard and Regan Hagar. Image Issues is a 26-song album and Davis isn’t just the album’s songwriter and vocalist; they’re also a multi-instrumentalist that created nearly every sound on the album, all the beats and keys in addition to being an engineer and co-producer. Josh Evans co-produced and mixed the album. Ed Brooks mastered it. On the song “Never” Evan Flory-Barnes played bass guitar and D’Vonne Lewis did drum fills.

Davis says about the seven spoken word songs on the album titled, Treadmill Memories: “They’re like a sonic movie, the rhythm of exercise especially the clicking of a treadmill, the jarring nature of a machine that’s just relentless reminds me of the childhood abuse I endured. ‘Treadmill Memories’ is my inner dialogue…my attempt to keep up with the overload of information that I had to process at a young age. I’m playing both the abused and the abuser in those tracks, and by acting out those things, I’m exorcizing some of that trauma.”

Overall Image Issues is a beautiful examination into Brittany Davis life through the artist themself. They use gospel piano, house beats, jazz chords, hip-hop grooves, and self-made samples to create fantastic melodies that are paired perfectly with Davis vocals, vocal effects and lyrics. I love that Davis played most of the instruments on each song, with exception of help on bass guitar and drum fills on one song, “Never.” The lyrics are heart on your sleeve honest, and vulnerable to Davis’ soul, and cathartic to the listener as well as the artist, I hope. Davis examines their existence and many of their relationships with not only themself but with others and the world around them. That being said, the themes are often bleak, dark, but there is optimism present. Song by song this album is a journey that flows well. I celebrate the boldness to not only create music that is 26 tracks on a single album but to also release it to the public as is. Kudos to all involved in that process as a 20+ song album is not common within the industry in 2024. It works well. The album is well produced, mixed and the overall sound is great. Excellent debut, Brittany Davis.

In the following song by song explanation of Image Issues, I decided to group the Treadmill Memories series together, even though as a listener you do not hear them consecutively. There is enough commonality and shared theming. “Treadmill Memories I” opens the album Image Issues with treadmill sound coupled with lyrics of self-doubt loneliness, shame and abuse. The second in the treadmill series, Treadmill Memories II” has lyrics that mention shame due to abuse, loneliness, self-image and death. “Treadmill Memories III” has Davis feeling severely defeated, recalling abuse and seeking religious based affirmations. “Treadmill Memories IV” features treadmill and piano and abuse, fear and doubt. The next treadmill entry, “Treadmill Memories V” has Davis recalling fear, abuse, self-doubt and wanting to be loved over treadmill sound. In “Treadmill Memories VI” has Davis recalling childhood abuse and experiencing frustration, loneliness, defeat and physical insecurities over a piano driven beat accompanied by the treadmill sound. The final “Treadmill Memories VII” features the expected treadmill beat over lyrics of that relatable inner monologue voice of self-doubt. The voice you may hear where you’re almost past something and the same voice/another one tells you otherwise. You almost beat it. As a listener, looking at this series as a whole, I think it was cathartic in that Davis exercises a lot of self-demons and trauma that she intended to.